


The Times They Forget

by Ena2705



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: BAMF Spencer Reid, Engineering, Gen, Secrets, Tattoos, hangovers, the team is forgetful
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:21:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25243063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ena2705/pseuds/Ena2705
Summary: Spencer Reid is a genius, anyone can tell you that. But sometimes people forget that his head wasn’t always buried in books, and there was a time when he did something other than catch serial killers.
Comments: 36
Kudos: 527





	1. Chapter 1

Gravel flung from tyres as two cars pulled into the parking lot of the worn motel. The car doors opened and the team pooled out, groaning at the heat. The cool air ventilated around the cars lulled them into a false sense of security along the drive from the jet, and stepping out of that comfort and into the reality of the Arizona heatwave took them all by shock. The sleepy town hardly received any guests, so only had the one place that offered board, and since the majority of visitors to this motel were either people stopping for the night before continuing their road trips or high school students wanting a night away from listening ears as they explored one another’s bodies, there were more than enough vacancies for the team to have a room each. 

Hotch dispersed the keys with a warning that the rooms’ air conditioning units were poor at best, so the team should take on plenty of water to prevent overheating. With the final notation to sleep well and reconvene at 7 in the car park the following morning, they departed ways, dragging their bags to their rooms. Reid glanced down at his key. 37. The average human body temperature in degrees celsius; the number of weeks Thriller by Michael Jackson spent on the Billboard top 200; the height in feet of the Green Monster in Boston; and the grand total of Shakespeare’s plays. But most importantly, or at least in that moment, 37 was the number of the room where Reid would spend the next week tossing and turning at night because the air conditioning was _poor at best._

Not if he had a say in it. 

Elbows deep in mechanical parts and grease somehow on his face, Reid managed to get the machine working adequately once more, and sighed in relief when a steady stream of cool air brushed through the vents. 

-

The next day had the team diving head-first into the case, and by the end of the gruellingly hot day, they had made enough headway to give the team hope that they could return home sooner than anticipated. 

They had gone out for dinner, as they often did when the case wasn’t on a tight timeline, before heading back to Rossi’s room, the largest of them all, to further discuss the case. Theories were flung around the room: some from Emily, sat in a tank top and pyjama pants on the windowsill; some from Morgan, stood with a water bottle pressed against his forehead and sweat patches on his tshirt; others from JJ, who was pacing up and down the room; and the occasional comment or disagreement from Rossi, who was stood in the doorway, leaning against the ajar door in hopes of being blessed by a cool breeze. Reid and Hotch were sat on the bed facing opposite one another, crime scene photos between them, and the pair of them trying to piece together what the others were saying, comparing the theories with the facts of the scene. 

It was only after the sun had completely gone down, and the sky pitch black outside, did the team decide to disperse back to their own rooms for some fitful sleep, realising it had gone midnight. Reid unlocked his door and was graced with a perfectly comfortable room temperature. Not as hot as Rossi’s room, and not as cold as it would be if the air conditioning unit was new, but before he could feel guilty that he would be sleeping well that night and the others likely would not, there was a knock on his door. 

Opening it revealed Hotch, holding Reid’s messenger bag, that he had apparently forgotten back in Rossi’s room. “You, uh.. you left this.” He was about to open his mouth to offer thanks but Hotch continued: “Is your air conditioning working? The clerk swore that none of them worked.” Reid motioned his unit chief in, knowing that this conversation would last longer than the average doorstep conversation. “It wasn’t, but couldn’t sleep last night.” He received a puzzled look and elaborated: “I know I shouldn’t have taken it apart, it’s not my property after all, and I’m so sorry that I didn’t tell you but I figured that I could try and get it to work and put it back together and get it to work. I mean, worst case scenario, it wouldn’t work and the unit would still be broken, but if I could figure out the problem then I could be able to sleep better and studies prove that a better night’s sleep can help improve thinking abilities. And, of course, if I worked better, then we could get the case over with faster.. I don’t mean to imply that I do all the work on the cases but...” he was interrupted from his ramble by a pointed look from Hotch. 

“I’m not mad, Reid. I don’t blame you for wanting to get it working again. Just...how?”

“Oh, well the primary issue was dust on the computer board that resulted in fewer...”

“Not ‘how did you fix it’, how did you know what to do? These units are old and even I doubt you’ve read every instruction manual.”

Reid laughed at that. 

“I have a PhD in engineering, an air conditioning unit is child’s play to me.”


	2. Chapter 2

It was a slow morning in the BAU, and the team were all quietly catching up on paperwork. Their stacks weren’t as obscenely large as they had been the day before, but high enough to require occasional caffeine fuelling, and the younger agents liked to time their breaks with one another, so they could chat whilst the pot brewed. As was the case at precisely 10:04, when Morgan stretched his arms up, made eye contact with Emily, who nodded at Reid, and the three of them stood and headed to the break room. JJ often opted to take her breaks in Garcia’s office, and they tended to chat about Henry, shopping, and organising nights out for the team, amongst other things. 

“So I got an invite to my 15 year high school reunion last night. Who does that? Who has one at 15 years, not 10 or 20?” Morgan started the conversation. 

“Be thankful you got an invite. I moved around schools so often, I doubt anyone remembers my name.” Emily added, reflecting back on her formative years, hopping from country to country and smiling politely to foreign ministers at her mother’s side. 

“Even if you did get an invite, you wouldn’t be able to go, you were undercover.” Pointed Morgan, grabbing three mugs from the cupboard. 

Emily tilted her head and pulled an agreeing face. It’s not as if she could have gone to her former classmates and said: “Hi, I’m a spy, but don’t tell my boyfriend because I’m secretly working against him. How have you been the last decade?” 

Reid opened the fridge door and passed the milk to Morgan. “I was 22 at my 10 year reunion, so at least you don’t have that. All I got was comments on how much taller I was, like I wouldn’t have grown since being 12 years old.” He scoffed, truly not understanding why his former peers were so shocked at his increased height. 

“Oh yeah, pretty boy was literally a boy in high school. What was it like seeing everyone again?” The pot had finally finished brewing, and Morgan filled the cups, adding a dash of milk to two of them, and passing the carton back to Reid. 

“Most everyone had stayed in town, a lot of the people that taunted me were working in the tourism industry. A few people had gotten out, had better paying jobs.” He admitted that helped boost his ego some, knowing the people that made his childhood hell were still miles behind him. 

Emily paused for a moment, trying to recall if she knew what Reid was doing before he joined the BAU. “What did you tell them you were doing?”

“Oh, well because of my PhDs in math and engineering, I was working part time on a top secret project for the navy. Of course, I couldn’t tell them that, so my cover was that I was working part time at NASA whilst continuing my studies and being mentored by Gideon.” Reid replied in a casual tone, like revealing that he was, at one point, a top secret scientist was not important or shocking news. 

Morgan took it in stride, laughing. Nothing about his best friend shocked him any more: of course he was a fan of 70s rock bands and had once worked as a techie for Aerosmith when they were performing in town; of course he once got lost hiking in the Nevada deserts and had a search and rescue team take him home when he was only 8 years old; and of course he once worked on a top secret project. “It’s testament to how smart you are that NASA is a believable cover story for you.”

Emily, however, had more questions. “Hang on, you were _what?_ ”

“It’s declassified now, but I was working on a new technology for submarines that will not only help them be completely invisible to any technology, but also be able to detect other invisible boats without sending out a signal,” he paused to laugh, “and the best part is that, part of the system inadvertently meant that we discovered how to keep food fresh for longer, at deeper pressures.” He added a final teaspoon of sugar to his coffee and took a sip. 

JJ chose that very moment to interrupt their break, telling the group that they had a case. They headed up the stairs to the round table room, all traces of Morgan’s 15 year reunion having left his mind.


	3. Chapter 3

Weekends were, undoubtedly, the best part of any week for the team. Besides the times where they were in strange beds in strange towns hunting down _very_ strange people, weekends were the days of solace; the days of lazy mornings and family bonding. And this weekend, Henry had decreed that his Uncle Spence was to come swimming with him, and it was made so. 

Reid enjoyed the quietness of weekends; weekdays at the bureau were always so busy and fast paced, it was nice to have a few days to slow down and relax. Usually on a weekend, he liked to brew a cup of coffee, play one of his mum’s old records, and stare out of his window upon the bustling street below. Bus Stop by The Hollies was one of his favourites to listen to as he watched people pass by, he liked to imagine that, just like the couple in the song, each of those strangers had a romantic story to tell. The song was interrupted by the shrill ringing of his phone. He had the same phone for work and personal use, and hoped that he wasn’t being called in for a case. JJ’s contact flashed on the screen, which gave little away about the nature of the call, as she was usually the one to alert the team. He quickly accepted the call. 

“JJ! Hi!” He kept his voice light and cheerful. 

“Hey, Spence. Don’t worry, we don’t have a case.” Came her reply, and they shared a chuckle of relief. 

He paused, not quite knowing what to say. Despite the years they have been friends, he still sometimes missed social cues, and didn’t want to appear rude. “Um, is everything okay?”

She was quick to reassure him: “Oh! Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine. Henry was actually wondering if you wanted to join us, we’re going swimming.”

He smiled at the thought of spending the day with his godson. “Sounds great, text me where and when.” 

They exchanged pleasantries and hung up. Reid finished the last of his coffee, which had cooled significantly during the duration of the call, and he pulled a face at the bitter taste it left. He placed the mug in the sink and turned towards his bedroom to dig out his swimming trunks when he received a text notification. They were coming to pick him up at 10:30, meaning he had less than half an hour to pack a bag; grab his wallet, badge, and keys; check that all windows were locked and latched; lock the door; and meet them outside his building. Plenty of time. 

JJ’s car pulled into the private car park, and Reid slipped into the front passenger seat, turning to greet the excited child in the back seat. Before long, they were on the road again, and Henry’s incessant and excited rambling was enough to rival Reid’s when on a case. The streets weren’t busy, and before long, they had arrived at the leisure centre and paid parking. 

It was natural for the three of them to head to the family changing rooms instead of the gendered ones. Will wasn’t intimidated by Reid’s presence in his family’s life, and though the boys at work would surely tease him that his wife was with another man whilst he was working overtime, he knew Spencer like a brother, and possessive thoughts never crossed his mind. 

Despite never having been swimming with JJ and Henry before, Reid was comfortable getting changed in front of them, and thought the feeling was reciprocated. That was, at least, until he felt his friend’s eyes tracking his every movement. 

“What?”

“I...uh...”

“Oh, am I making you uncomfortable? I’m so sorry, I’ll turn around.”

“No, Spence, that’s not it at all. Um... when did you get so _toned_?”

Reid looked down at his body and frowned. He hadn’t gained any muscle mass in the last few months, and he hadn’t lost any weight to give the appearance of larger muscles, so he didn’t understand why his best friend was only just realising what his body looked like. Henry was oblivious to the adults’ conversation, and was busy picking sock fluff from his toes. It dawned on Reid that he never wore anything particularly skin-tight in front of his teammates, and he rarely shared a room with either of the girls on cases, so it made sense that JJ hadn’t seen his figure before; he wasn’t overtly muscular like Morgan, and to anyone just glancing his way, he did just look lanky. 

“I was a 15 year old engineering student, one of our projects was to build a car that didn’t run on fossil fuels. I’ve been operating heavy machinery and lifting heavy objects for fun since before I could grow facial hair.” He figured that the simplest explanation was best, and he need not mention that he also regularly worked out after work a few times a week because he felt physically inferior to his teammates. 

Henry was getting impatient by that point, and grabbed his mum’s and godfather’s hands, dragging the _obviously changed and ready to go swimming_ adults to the pool. JJ shook her head to clear her thoughts and smiled down at her son. 

-

Two days later, and the weekend was naught but a happy memory of splashing, diving, and being told off by the lifeguards because apparently, pushing one another in is not allowed. JJ sat on the couch in Garcia’s office, the other woman hanging off her every word: “I’m telling you, he was so toned, you could see every muscle. If my eyes weren’t only for my husband, I may have jumped him there and then.”

“Our junior g-man? No way, I can’t believe it.”

“It’s true. And he just brushed over the fact that he could lift car parts when he was _15_!”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wasn’t really satisfied with this chapter, I had the prompt and couldn’t figure out a way to get to it. And I don’t really like my writing style here, so sorry for what you’re about to read

Hotch was awoken before his alarm to a loud noise coming from his son’s room. A prominent ‘thud’ followed by a series of smaller ‘thud’s, indicating that Jack had risen early and decided to take down his toy box, spill out the contents, and play dinosaurs, or trucks, or whatever his heart contented. Hotch turned his face to his pillow and let out a small groan before getting out of bed to chastise his son for being loud before the sun had fully risen. Said son appropriately guilty, though not guilty enough to stop playing with his toys, simply playing quieter, Hotch decided against going back to bed and turned to the bathroom for a shower. They had decided on cereal for breakfast, and as Hotch was pouring himself a mug of coffee, the alarm went off in his bedroom, causing Hotch to jump and consequently spill his coffee all over the counter. The mistake would have frustrated him, but the innocent giggle from his son soothed all his frayed nerves. 

After dropping Jack off at school, he swung by Reid’s house to pick him up. The car-sharing was an arrangement that had been going on for over a year; every Wednesday morning, Hotch would pick Reid up for work as the metro was inexplicably busy that morning, and Reid really didn’t want to wake up earlier than he had to, but also didn’t want to be late, and Hotch really didn’t want to work with a grumpy genius, but he also didn’t want to work with an over-caffeinated genius, so he volunteered to pick Reid up in order to allow the youngest team member to sleep a full 8 hours and not have to compensate for the early rise with coffee. 

These car journeys were often pleasant, with the pair discussing trivial things, such as what shows they have watched recently and what articles have peaked their interest, and deeper concepts such as the presence of natural and man-made evils invalidating the concept of an omnibenevolent god, or the inconsistencies between classic literature and modern movie adaptations contributing to a less intelligent society. Some days, they would even just ride in comfortable silence, the only thing between them being the jingle on the radio advertising some new product or another. This particular day, however, bore no such interactions between the pair. Instead, Reid was acting giddy, his attention barely focusing for a few minutes before chuckling at himself and trying to cover it up by talking about something else. Hotch was curious about the other man’s excitement, but was too tired to ask as his kitchen counter drank more coffee than he had that morning. 

Once inside the BAU bullpen, he hurried off to his office, not being able to deal with such hyper behaviour for much longer, and wanting a few minutes of solitude before the hectic day began. Today, however, didn’t seem to be his day, because just as he sat back in his seat, a very annoyed (and just slightly confused) looking Derek Morgan stormed into the bullpen and straight to Reid’s desk. Through his interior office window, Hotch noticed that Reid had collected himself and was looking innocently up at Morgan. Curiosity peaked once more as he slid from behind his desk to his doorframe, to observe the confrontation that was about to occur. He justified his nosiness by calling it concern for his agents. 

“Reid?” Morgan asked, trying his hardest to not break. 

The other agent looked up and hummed. 

“Last night, after we got off the jet, you went straight home, right?” The plane hadn’t landed until gone midnight, and everyone was so exhausted that they all went straight home, paperwork be damned. 

“Yes...” Reid dragged out, continuing to play his innocent game. Hotch concealed a chuckle, knowing that from Reid’s behaviour in the car, he had definitely done something. 

“Then how the hell did you get a goat into my bedroom?” He couldn’t stop the laugh this time, caught completely off guard by the sentence. 

Neither agent had heard him, or they chose to ignore him as Morgan continued; “Did you rope somebody in to help you? Had you put the goat there before we left for the case? Did you get back to my place before me?”

A smirk broke out on Reid’s face.

“Did you... wait, is this because of San Francisco?” Morgan finally realised that the prank was payback for one of his own earlier pranks. 

Reid nodded his affirmation, still pretending to be working. 

“Just, how?”

“That’s for me to know, and you to never find out.” Reid finally spoke, getting up to fill his coffee mug, prompting Hotch to remember his own neglected mug. 

Once in the break room, Hotch turned to Reid, but before he could even ask him how he pulled it off, Reid spoke once more. 

“People always underestimate me, they think that just because I’m a nerd, it means that I can’t be devious or play tricks. Their underestimation is one of my greatest assets when pulling a prank.”

At that, Hotch began to outright laugh. “When did you start playing tricks?” He asked, pouring coffee into the two mugs. 

“When I was at MIT studying Engineering, I was still a minor so there wasn’t much to do on an evening. A few buddies had started a robotics club which gave us access to some mechanical labs, and fiddling with those so that they would interrupt the next day’s lecture was so funny to us, we decided to up the ante and prank one another. It got so extreme that I somehow woke up with a goat in my bed with me, and my bed on the roof.” Reid was smiling at the memory. “I figured out how they did it and waited to use that one myself.”

He picked up his mug and left the break room, leaving Hotch staring at him in shock and awe.


	5. You accidentally drank some regrets in your wine

It wasn’t often that the BAU had a slow month; even if there weren’t urgent cases, there were still piles of consults and minor cases that took one or two team members away at a time. Recently, however, the group had been on top of their consults and there seemed to be a break in crime. 

Naturally, of course, the team wanted to take advantage of the change in pace, all deciding to tick off their annual to-do lists at once. Doctors visits, dental appointments, any recertifications and course refreshers, were all booked in for this month. The frequency in which the whole team were filling out paperwork dwindled; at least one person was always away, and they began to miss each other. Morale weaken, and a Garcia mandated night out was added to their schedules. 

Rare was a night of drunken bonding, the group often preferred daytime, family-friendly activities. Nevertheless, after having known each other for so long, they each had one another’s drinks order memorised. For Hotch, he enjoyed whatever stout was on tap; Rossi, Reid, and Emily often shared a bottle or three of red wine; Morgan mostly drank whiskey and cokes, with shots intermittently; and JJ and Garcia would flirt between different coloured cocktails all night. Carrying seven glasses was hard, and often included a tray or two trips, apart for Reid and Garcia, who both claimed to have waited tables in the past and found carrying several glasses easy. 

That particular night, Garcia had chosen a club that featured a dress-up night. People came dressed as they were, and the club would provide accessories to dress up in. The idea being, the more people drank, the fewer inhibitions, and the more likely to dress up they were. By half way through the night, everyone was donning at least two accessories, and Morgan was rumbling through the trunk of accessories. 

“Reid! Hey, pretty boy! I found the tutu to match your tiara!”

The aforementioned skirt flew threw the air, landing on the team’s table with a crowd of cheers. Reid leaned over the table to find an abandoned garment in Morgan’s empty seat. 

“Only if you put on the blue one!” 

The pair headed to the bathroom to change, staggering the entire way there and back. Wearing matching tutus and tiaras, they made their way to the dance floor, posed for Garcia’s phone camera, and proceeded to show off their ballet skills. 

-

Saturday morning found Reid being woken by an icepick to his temples. He took a moment to reorientate himself, and recognised the torturous sound as his ringtone. Sitting up, he reached for the nightstand and squinted at the light coming through his curtains. 

“He-“

“Spencer Reid you should be glad you are adorable and absolutely necessary to the team or you would be in a lot of trouble right now and I might have had to lock you up.”

“Good morning to you too, Garcia.”

“”Don’t sass me right now, I may still be slightly mad at you.”

“Pen, I’m currently crawling to the bathroom to throw up the remainders of last nights drinks. You’re really not making any sense right now.”

“Oh, sorry, I’ll lower my voice when you tell me just when you planned on telling me that you have TATTOOS.”

“Ow. Ow. Hang on.”

...

“Okay, I’m back. That was disgusting. Uh, how did you find out about those?”

“I was enjoying leftover pizza for breakfast and scrolling through pictures from last night when I see you and my hunk o’ lovin, both wearing extremely short, extremely glittery skirts, and your thighs were covered in ink.”

“Oh.”

“Oh? Is that all you have to say?”

“Uh...no? Honestly I thought you already knew. It was pretty obvious. The time I had to ask you to borrow lotion because the skin was dry and it was making me itch?”

“I thought that was just a you thing. Reid, you can hardly see your skin!”

“I’d love to talk with you some more, Pen, but I’m about to throw up again and then crawl back in bed for the rest of the weekend. Can we talk about this on Monday? I can’t even remember my own middle name right now.”

“Too far away, I’ll see you tomorrow for breakfast, get well soon!”

He hung up with a sigh, and proceeded to do exactly as he told his friend over the phone.


End file.
